耶利米書 9
1 恨不得我的頭髮變成水源，我的眼化為淚泉，好能日夜哭泣我被殺死的女兒──人民!
Who doth make my head waters, And mine eye a fountain of tears? And I weep by day and by night, For the wounded of the daughter of my people.
2 誰能在o石我找一個旅棧，叫我好離開我的人民，離他們而遠去﹖因為都是些亂之徒，是一群反叛；
Who doth give me in a wilderness A lodging-place of travellers? And I leave my people, and go from them, For all of them [are] adulterers, An assembly of treacherous ones.
3 他們彎起像弓的舌頭，使 在地上得勢的，是虛偽而不是誠實，因為他們變本加厲作惡，全不理睬我──上主的斷語。
And they bend their tongue, their bow [is] a lie, And not for stedfastness have they been mighty in the land, For from evil unto evil they have gone forth, And Me they have not known, An affirmation of Jehovah!
4 你們應各自提防自己的近人，不要信任弟兄，因為所有的弟兄都愛好欺詐，一般的近人都好說讒言；
Each of his friend — beware ye, And on any brother, do not trust, For every brother doth utterly supplant, For every friend slanderously doth walk,
5 人都欺騙自己的近人，不講實話，使自己的舌頭慣於說謊，謁力行惡，
And each at his friend they mock, And truth they do not speak, They taught their tongue to speak falsehood, To commit iniquity they have laboured.
6 不願悔悟，卻強暴上又加強暴，欺詐上又加欺詐，全不理睬我──上主的斷語。
thy dwelling [is] in the midst of deceit, Through deceit they refused to know Me, An affirmation of Jehovah.
7 為此萬軍的上主這樣說：「看，我要將他們淨化，提煉；否則，我將怎樣處理我的女兒──人民──的邪惡﹖
Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Lo, I am refining them, and have tried them, For how do I do because of the daughter of My people?
8 他們的舌頭像毒箭，好出詐言；嘴上對鄰友說話溫和，心中卻設計陷害。
A slaughtering arrow [is] their tongue, Deceit it hath spoken in its mouth, Peace with its neighbour it speaketh, And in its heart it layeth its ambush,
9 為這些事我豈能不懲罰﹖──上主的斷語──像這樣的一個民族，我豈能不圖報復﹖
For these things do not I see after them? An affirmation of Jehovah, Against a nation such as this doth not My soul avenge itself?
10 我要為群山號咷痛哭，為原野高唱哀歌，因為全都被焚毀，沒有人往來，再聽不到牲畜的聲音；自天空的飛鳥到地上的走獸，都逃去無蹤。
For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, And for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, For they have been burnt up without any passing over, Nor have they heard the voice of cattle, From the fowl of the heavens unto the beast they have fled, they have gone.
11 我要使耶路撒冷成為廢壚，成為豺狼的巢穴；使猶大的城市荒涼，無人居住。
And I make Jerusalem become heaps, A habitation of dragons, And the cities of Judah I make a desolation, Without inhabitant.
12 誰夠聰明，明白這事﹖上主親口吩咐誰公佈這事﹖「為什麼像這地方遭受毀滅，荒蕪得有如無人經過的曠野﹖」
Who [is] the wise man? and he understandeth this, And he to whom the mouth of Jehovah spake? And he doth declare it, For what hath the land perished? It hath been burnt up as a wilderness, Without any passing through.
13 上主說：因為他們離棄了我給他們立的法律，沒有聽從我的聲音，沒有按照法律而行；
And Jehovah saith: Because of their forsaking My law that I set before them, And they have not hearkened to My voice nor walked in it,
14 反而去順從自己頑固的心，追隨祖先教給他們的巴耳神。
And they walk after the stubbornness of their heart, And after the Baalim, that their fathers taught them,
15 為此萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我必使這人民吃毒艾，飲毒水；
Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am causing them — this people — to eat wormwood, And I have caused them to drink water of gall,
16 使他們流離到他們和他們祖先素不相識的民族中；派刀劍追擊他們，直至將他們完全消滅。
And I have scattered them among nations Which they knew not, they and their fathers, And have sent after them the sword, Till I have consumed them.
17 萬軍的上主這樣說：你們應該明白，快召哀悼的婦女來，派人去叫擅長哭泣的女人來，
Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Consider ye, and call for mourning women, And they come, And to the wise women send, and they come,
18 叫她們迅速前來，我們啼哭，使我們的眼睛流下眼淚，使我們的睫毛湧出睙水，
And they hasten, and lift up for us a wailing. And run down our eyes do tears, And from our eyelids do waters flow.
19 因為從熙雍那裏可以聽到哭聲：我們怎樣崩潰了，受了許多多大的恥辱! 竟要離開本國，拋棄我們的家園!
For — a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: How have we been spoiled! We have been greatly ashamed, Because we have forsaken the land, Because they have cast down our tabernacles.
20 妳們婦女! 都應聽清上主的話，親耳聆聽衪口授的言詞；教妳們的女兒痛哭，彼此互相學唱哀歌：
But hear, ye women, a word of Jehovah, And your ear receiveth a word of His mouth, And teach ye your daughters wailing, and each her neighbour lamentation.
21 因為死亡已從我們的窗戶爬進來，進入了我們的宮殿，殲滅了街上的孩童，和廣場上的青年。
For death hath come up into our windows, It hath come into our palaces, To cut off the suckling from without, Young men from the broad places.
22 你應這樣說──上主的斷語──人的屍體僵臥著，好像在田野裏的糞堆；又像遺留在收割者後面無人拾取的麥束。
Speak thus — an affirmation of Jehovah, And fallen hath the carcase of man, As dung on the face of the field, And as a handful after the reaper, And there is none gathering.
23 上主這樣說：「智者不應誇耀自己的智慧，力士不應誇耀自己的力量，富人不應誇耀自己的財富。
Thus said Jehovah: Let not the wise boast himself in his wisdom, Nor let the mighty boast himself in his might, Let not the rich boast himself in his riches,
24 凡要誇耀的，只應該在「知道和認識我」這件事誇耀，因為在地上是我，上主，施行仁慈、公道和正義，因為我喜愛這樣事──上主的斷語。
But — in this let the boaster boast himself, In understanding and knowing Me, For I [am] Jehovah, doing kindness, Judgment, and righteousness, in the earth, For in these I have delighted, An affirmation of Jehovah.
25 看，時日將到──上主的斷語──我要懲罰所有受過割損而仍存有包皮的人，
Lo, days are coming — an affirmation of Jehovah, And I have laid a charge on all circumcised in the foreskin,
26 即埃及、猶大、厄東、阿孟子民、摩阿布和所有住在曠野剃除鬚髮的人，因為這一切民族都未受過割損，至於以色列全家卻是未受過內心的割損」。
On Egypt, and on Judah, and on Edom, And on the sons of Ammon, and on Moab, And on all cutting the corner [of the beard], Who are dwelling in the wilderness, For all the nations [are] uncircumcised, And all the house of Israel [are] uncircumcised in heart!
